Lightning hazards and risks to humans: some case studies

There are a lot of scientific papers and information on the subject of lightning hazard to human beings—but the numerical risk assessments are rather sparse. This paper presents and discusses some propositions of the numerical risk estimation procedures for the following categories: • A lightning directly strikes a person (the hazard is real in regions of high thunderstorm activity, e.g. in the Mediterranean). • Contact potential and side flash (when a human stays close to conductor leading lightning current). Some examples on calculation results will also be given. The authorʹs approach is to estimate the energy dissipated in a lightning stroke by analysing a circuit model by the physical geometry.